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Published: August 31st 2008
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Blogging Again
My blogs came to a halt in March after the Armenian elections resulted in martial law, tanks in the streets, and rumors that blogs were not in the best interests of bloggers. In April Tom returned to the US to continue working with UNAVCO to install GPS stations in the Rocky Mountain west and I remained at the American University of Armenia to coordinate two very successful spring projects. Birds in My Backyard, is a contest for students from 7-16 years old, that we organized with the help of Peace Corps volunteer environmental specialists. More than 250 children in Armenian towns and villages built bird feeders which they set up outside their homes or apartment windows. They observed the birds that came to their feeders and prepared a short story, a drawing, or photograph about a particular bird and submitted it to our Environmental Center. In April we held a celebration at AUA and brought twenty of the winners and their families (more than 100 people) to Yerevan for a party and a day in the city. Our Environmental Center has sponsored this program for more than 7 years and it has proved to be a very successful
way to get young people involved in working to improve conservation of Armenia’s natural environment. Funding for our program this year was provided by Bev Ross and Prudential Insurance and the Sarkis Acopian Fund. We welcome additional contributions to this program. Please visit our website at www.aua.am//ecrcweb/index.htm to see pictures from our event and to find out how to support this event.
We also sponsored a reception to celebrate the publication of the book Flowers of the Trancaucasus and Adjacent Areas by Dr. Eleanora Gabrielyan of the Institute of Botany. Dr. Gabrielyan’s book is a beautiful color guide that provides an introduction to the flora of Armenia for tourists and those who want to know the names of the flowers that occur along hiking routes. Our goal in sponsoring the reception was to introduce the idea that it is important to celebrate and support the work of individuals and organizations working to improve conservation protection in Armenia . The reception was attended by more than 140 people.
By April the Environmental Center began a very busy summer field season. Field work included research on bird use of macrophytic vegetation at Lake Sevan, the largest freshwater lake in Armenia (in the
Caucasus region); ecological genetics studies on wild wheat species in Armenia in partnership with the University of California Riverside (Dr. Giles Waines) and the Botanical Institute of Armenia; butterfly studies in preparation for publication of A Field Guide to Butterflies of Armenia; continuation of our long-term studies of white stork ecology; research on peregrine falcon reproductive ecology post pesticide spraying in southern Armenia; and additional studies on raptor ecology throughout Armenia. Needless to say coordinating vehicles, researchers, equipment, and funds kept us very busy.
In August I headed to Montana for three weeks vacation. Tom and I helped Marian pack up and head off to a graduate program in scientific writing at Boston University. The biggest hurdle was getting her dog Daisy to her because her flight on Frontier Airlines from Billings to Denver did not allow dogs in the cabin (Daisy is a small Pomeranian) or as cargo. And then Tom and I traveled to some of the most beautiful places in Montana and Wyoming—to the Tetons with Bev and Sig Ross, to Glacier National Park for Tom’s work, and to the Beartooths with our son Ian and his wife Caitlin.
August 26 Tom and I flew back to
Yerevan, Armenia to begin a second year at the Environmental Conservation and Research Center, but this time with a very different arrangement. Tom will be the Director of the Center during the three months that I am a Fulbright Scholar at the Komarov Botanical Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia. I’ll be working on a translation into English of a Russian botany text “Plant Materials of the Altai Mountain Region” by Rudolf Kamelin. Dr. Kamelin has worked for many years in the Altai Mountain range that covers areas of Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. He has identified and described in his book numerous species that occur only in the Altai and in the Rocky Mountains of North America. Because the information in his book is important for botanists and plant geographers who study plant species distributions and the evolution of plant species, an English version will be useful.
Tom and I welcome visitors to Yerevan and/or St. Petersburg. We’ll return to Montana for two months in December and January before finishing up our work in Armenia in June 2009.
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Sharol
non-member comment
back at it
Jenny Was great to see you while you were home, even if for just a short time. I am looking forward to seeing you again in December! I am getting down to crunch time on my training - ran 19.2 miles this morning. Next two weeks I will do 20 mile runs for the long runs and then taper from there. Take care of yourself and continue the blogs! Miss you!